IDEAS’ TeacherStudio Wins Innovation Award

TeacherStudio® (www.TeacherStudio.com), created by IDEAS along with venture partner eSchool Solutions, has been awarded a 2010 William C. Schwartz Industry Innovation Award, given annually to celebrate innovation and entrepreneurship in Orange, Seminole, Lake and Osceola Counties, as well as the City of Orlando. TeacherStudio® is the first comprehensive web-based, professional learning community for educators.

“We have been working on this product for a few years and launched it nationally in June,” commented Kelly Pounds, VP of IDEAS Learning. “We are extremely happy with the response thus far from the education community and thrilled to be recognized for this prestigious award so early in our development.”

TeacherStudio® provides a robust online resource for professional educators to collaborate by sharing best-practices via user-generated content, “templated” planning documents and communication tools. Content is universally searchable and organized into “channels” that are important to a teacher’s success in increasing student achievement – instructional strategies, classroom management tips, lesson plans, and technology how-to’s.

TeacherStudio® has already been adopted by a number of counties throughout the country including Seminole County Public Schools in Central Florida. Diane Lewis, Director of Instructional Technology in Seminole County Public Schools recently commented, “TeacherStudio® allows us to develop a common vision for teaching and learning in the 21^st century.” TeacherStudio® is also the exclusive online home of a collection of multi-media content based on the extraordinary book The Power of Teaching. Written by veteran educator Dr. Joseph Wise, Power of Teaching uses six “power sources” to demonstrate in a practical way HOW teaching can be improved.

“TeacherStudio is a truly innovative tool that is protected, school-district moderated, and user driven,” noted Brett Fadeley, CEO of eSchool Solutions. “This professional learning community is a big part of our integrated portfolio of absentee and workforce management solutions that focuses on performance enhancing products designed to improve administrative efficiencies and professional learning.”

As TeacherStudio® begins to create meaningful change in education the platform can be used for a scalable network-of-networks, creating professional communities of practice in healthcare, homeland security, and other critical enterprise and government sectors. The entire system has been designed and developed with an audience-centric, story-based protocol making it instantly intuitive. Its web based, software-as-a-service structure allows it to be offered at a low entry cost to end users with no impact on their IT backbone.

“We are deeply committed to helping educators in their day-to-day lives,” Shirley Decker, EVP, Business Development for IDEAS said. “When you can create a product that helps such an important industry and be recognized for innovative thinking that our company strives to practice every day, that’s a winning combination.”

About eSchool Solutions (http://www.eschoolsolutions.com/): Located in Orlando FL, eSchool Solutions is a leading supplier of administrative and professional development software , complete staffing and performance improvement solutions to school districts throughout the US and Canada.

About the William C. Schwartz Awards: Bill Schwartz, founder and CEO of Schwartz Electro-Optics, was a visionary whose innovative ideas pioneered change. In his spirit, the Metro Orlando EDC annually celebrates innovation and entrepreneurship with the William C. Schwartz Industry Innovation Awards. Past award recipients include Adacel Systems, CESSNA/Citation, Channel Intelligence, City of Oviedo, .decimal, Disney Shared Services, Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center, Indra Systems, G&T Conveyor, JetBlue University, Kissimmee Utility Authority, Lake-Sumter Emergency Medical Services, Mitsubishi Power Systems, Nursery Supplies, Ocean Optics, Planet Digital, Senninger Irrigation, Inc., Siemens Energy, Superchips, and U.S. Nutra.